title: Hypothesis: Impregnated school uniforms reduce the incidence of dengue infections in school children.
abstract: Dengue infection causes a significant economic, social and medical burden in affected populations in over 100 countries in the tropics and sub-tropics. Current dengue control efforts have generally focused on vector control but have not shown major impact. School-aged children are especially vulnerable to infection, due to sustained human-vector-human transmission in the close proximity environments of schools. Infection in children has a higher rate of complications, including dengue hemorrhagic fever and shock syndromes, than infections in adults. There is an urgent need for integrated and complementary population-based strategies to protect vulnerable children. We hypothesize that insecticide-treated school uniforms will reduce the incidence of dengue in school-aged children. The hypothesis would need to be tested in a community based randomized trial. If proven to be true, insecticide-treated school uniforms would be a cost-effective and scalable community based strategy to reduce the burden of dengue in children.
authors.affiliation: National University of Singapore, Department of Medicine, Singapore. epvws@pacific.net.sg
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wilder-Smith
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lover
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kittayapong
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Burnham
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D003020:Clothing; D003715:Dengue / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006801:Humans; D012574:Schools; D013785:Thailand / Q000453:epidemiology